Mount Shuksan — Saturday, Apr. 27, 2002

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

The Shannon Ridge Trail #742 is the approach to the Sulphide Glacier route on Mt. Shuksan. We encountered snow on the road at about 2000', which is about 3+ miles from the trailhead. Maybe less. Anyway, it took us just over an hour to reach the trailhead. We skiied up the road, but had to take the skis off many times (10?) because the snow has melted off the road in many places. Also, there were a couple of very minor blowdowns across the road. From the trailhead on there is almost complete snowcover, the exception being the streams. Most have melted out, meaning few snow bridges. The route up to Shannon Ridge is pretty obvious even under this much snow. Go early though, because by afternoon the snow becomes wet and miserable to walk/ski in. Once above timberline we noticed many recent avalanches, which is of course common this time of year. We only went through avalanche debris in two areas - once just above Shannon Ridge, and once on the very short traverse mentioned below. The traverse under the cliff (@6000') before the climb up to the rolling Sulphide glacier was frozen solid in the morning. We had set a skin track across it the evening before our summit bid, which ended up being a pretty good idea as it was frozen solid yet at 6am the next morning...and there's a looong runout if you slip. Skiers take note: bring crampons. Despite the gentle grade of the Sulphide (and the area below it), skinning up was dicey at times. We often resorted to sidestepping on our edges, as the skins weren't holding on the icy snow. My friend took his skis off twice for long sections of the climb; I slipped 30 feet once before catching myself. It would suck to fall when the snow is this hard. But by 9am conditions had softened up a bit, and we reached the summit pyramid by 10am. Stashed our skis at the base (too wussy to ski the crusty 45-degree stuff). Another factor to note is that the sun didn't hit the south face of the pyramid until @9am. This is either good or bad, depending on your preferred mode of ascending the snow chute to the top. The bottom 100 feet of the pyramid featured a one-inch hard crust with softer stuff beneath, which made kicking steps unpleasant. Beyond that we were front-pointing in the shady spots (very difficult to get much purchase), then kicking in three or four inches for the last 100 feet. The pyramid is ALL snow and rime ice yet. It took @45 minutes to climb the 600 feet of the pyramid to the tiny summit on this beautiful sunny day. White mountains everywhere. Big grins. The descent from the pyramid was fine, as the sun had been working on the snow. We were able to plunge-step most of the way down after facing in for the first 150 feet. The snow was super for skiing all the way back to camp at 5800'. Only one crevasse was open on the glacier, but it is obvious and not on the route...stay high, like Beckey says to do! We didn't use a rope or pro the entire time, and felt perfectly safe doing so. Slushy snow from Shannon Ridge down to the car, but I think if you left earlier than we did, and packed up camp more quickly, the tree skiing would be awesome. A final note - the snow is melting FAST from the road and lower trail section. Waiting a few weeks will mean less elevation gain, less distance...less solitude!